“the contemporary intent of copyright is to promote the creation of new works by giving authors control of and profit from them.”

The creation of an artistic work brings about the rights which are inherit to copyright law. Any artistic work (refer to the statutory definition) includes written works. Comments are written and therefore those rights are passed to the author. There is no agreement - explicit or implied - which allows you to gain exclusive ownership over comments because their is no relationship which provides you automatic ownership by mere occasion.

I think its more an issue of the anonymity on the internet and the fact that the only identifiable and tracable piece of evidence which can confer copyright ownership in a dispute is binary code and IP addresses.

“the contemporary intent of copyright is to promote the creation of new works by giving authors control of and profit from them.”

The creation of an artistic work brings about the rights which are inherit to copyright law. Any artistic work (refer to the statutory definition) includes written works. Comments are written and therefore those rights are passed to the author. There is no agreement - explicit or implied - which allows you to gain exclusive ownership over comments because their is no relationship which provides you automatic ownership by mere occasion.

I think its more an issue of the anonymity on the internet and the fact that the only identifiable and tracable piece of evidence which can confer copyright ownership in a dispute is binary code and IP addresses.